Ukraine War Debate | Munk Debates

James Goldgeier

“Putin has had plenty of possible off ramps before and during this war. And he's shown no interest in taking them."

James Goldgeier is a visiting fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution and a professor of international relations at the School of International Service at American University, where he served as dean from 2011-17. In 2018-19, he held the inaugural Library of Congress Chair in U.S.-Russia relations. Previously, he was a professor at George Washington University, where from 2001-05 he directed the Elliott School’s Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. 

Goldgeier has authored or co-authored four books, including Not Whether But When: The U.S. Decision to Enlarge NATO (Brookings, 1999); Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy Toward Russia after the Cold War (Brookings Institution Press, 2003; co-authored with Michael McFaul); and America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 (PublicAffairs 2008; co-authored with Derek Chollet). He is the recipient of the Edgar S. Furniss Book Award for first time authors in the field of national security studies and the Georgetown University Lepgold Book Prize in International Relations.

 

Emma Ashford

“Putin may deserve a dead end, but it's not clear to me that that's better for everybody else."

Emma Ashford was a resident senior fellow with the New American Engagement Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, which focused on challenging the prevailing assumptions governing US foreign policy and sought to develop effective solutions that preserved America’s security and prosperity. She was also a non-resident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

Emma’s work focused on questions of grand strategy, international security, and the future of US foreign policy. She had expertise in the politics of Russia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Previously, she was a research fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute, where she worked on a variety of issues including the US-Saudi relationship, sanctions policy, US policy towards Russia, and US foreign policy and grand strategy more broadly. She founded and co-hosted the Power Problems podcast. Her long-form writing has been featured in publications such as Foreign Affairs, the Texas National Security Review, and Strategic Studies Quarterly, and her opinion writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, Vox, The National Interest, and War on the Rocks, among others.